At Intel's financial analyst conference on Tuesday, Maloney was in the audience during the main presentation and was not introduced. But later, he previewed his Computex keynote for a small group of industry analysts. Though he spoke more slowly than the rapid pace he's known for, he strode on stage and engaged the audience as always, according to analysts who attended the session.

"It is really phenomenal what he's done, because from what I hear, he came back from a very bad situation," said Jim McGregor, an analyst at In-Stat. "He had to learn to talk. It's phenomenal to see the progress he's made."

Maloney, an enthusiastic advocate for Intel who has worked at the company since 1982, was seen by some observers as the most obvious candidate to replace Otellini. He is still one of two clear front-runners, along with Perlmutter, In-Stat's McGregor said. But the possible impact of Maloney's leave on Intel's future is hard to know, said Insight64 analyst Nathan Brookwood. "There's more doubt now about whether he would ... assume that CEO role at some future date than there was prior to the stroke," Brookwood said.

Some of the key tasks Intel now faces are in the area of mobile devices, which fall under Maloney and Perlmutter's purview as the guardians of the Intel processor architecture and have been a particular area of interest for Maloney. He was a key cheerleader for Wi-Fi and became the prime evangelist for mobile WiMax as it was standardized and commercialized in the latter part of the past decade.

Intel is now aiming at smartphones and tablets, regardless of the wireless technology they use, and trying to gain chip share in these fast-growing platforms, Brookwood said.